


what to expect

by londer



Series: d20 alphabet 2021 [1]
Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 03 Season 02: The Unsleeping City Chapter II, D20 A-Z Challenge, F/M, Pregnancy, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29634693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/londer/pseuds/londer
Summary: what to expect when you're expecting a dragon baby, an aasimar baby, and (maybe) a humanwritten for the D20 Alphabet 2021 event (A-D)
Relationships: Dale Lee/Sofia Lee, Kingston Brown/Elizabeth "Liz" Herrera, Ricky Matsui/Esther Sinclair
Series: d20 alphabet 2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2189991
Comments: 11
Kudos: 44
Collections: Dimension 20 Alphabet 2021





	what to expect

**Author's Note:**

> written for the A-Z D20 challenge in feb 2021! there's a prompt for every day and this is the first four day's worth since they're thematically all similar.

A / attack,  **alone,** audience

Esther’s so alone in this CVS. She keeps her head held steady to not look suspicious under the watchful fucking police state cameras that exist in New York drugstores. It’s nearly eleven at night and she’s the only person in the store except for the middle aged woman manning the registers. 

She buys two pregnancy tests and a carton of fudge brownie Ben and Jerry’s. The cashier mercifully doesn’t say anything about what she’s buying, just wishes her a pleasant evening and Esther smiles and nods and leaves. She’s alone on the street, their neighborhood quiet on a Thursday evening. Her heart is beating so fast it nearly hurts as she makes her way up the steps to their building. 

Esther’s never quite felt this sort of loneliness before. She’s taken pregnancy tests before, always alone, but this is different. Those were broken condoms and one night stands. This is her and Ricky and The Long Term and so important she feels sick to her stomach. 

She pees on a stick. The seconds tick by so fucking slow as she waits for it to develop, and she starts in on the ice cream just to kill the time. Her hands are shaking on the spoon. 

It’s kind of embarrassing, especially when it turns out a negative. Just a missed period from stress. She takes the second test too, just to be sure, but the hot rush of relief through her body is unbelievable even after the first one. 

The front door bangs open - Ricky coming home, most likely - and she quickly  _ minor illusions _ the tests into a box of candy and stuffs them in the trashcan. Esther pastes on a smile and goes out to see him.

* * *

B / beach,  **books** , ball

Sofie gets a stack of outdated parenting books from her mom and a better stack from Pete’s bookstore. She reads them obsessively in her free time. Kingston and Lugash agree that her pregnancy will most likely follow the usual track of a human pregnancy, so she studies up. 

Sofie learns about colic and postpartum depression and feeding schedules. She texts Iga at least twice a week with panicky questions, and Iga sends all her best tips about nap time and nipple chafing. Sofie didn’t know nipple chafing was in her near future but Iga gets a distant annoyed look on her face when she talks about it and so Sofie buys two tubs of the balm she recommended.

She's got a birth plan in place and a bag packed for the hospital. She gets a book for parents who lost their partner and she starts making a little scrapbook of her best memories of Dale to show the baby. 

Pete starts a shared Google Doc for them all to suggest baby names. It's the one kind of book she didn't pick up because Sofie already knows she's a pretty basic bitch and this baby is either going to be Dale Jr. or Marie Rose.

* * *

C /  **cozy** , cooking, **crown**

Ricky wraps them both in the plaid flannel blanket and pulls her into his lap on the couch. Esther nuzzles into his neck and her body curves into his space so they're pressed together. His heart is pounding. There wasn't time in the fight to ask about the tests and he needs to know so badly but if she's not offering up the information herself he almost doesn't want to ask. 

"I found the Junior Mints in the bathroom," he says. She freezes, muscles going tight, and he can hear her swallow. "Are you - are  _ we _ \- ?" 

"No," she says quickly, pulling away from him. The blanket falls away from her shoulders, mirroring Ricky's heart dropping in his stomach. "No, false alarm." Her hand is pressed conspicuously to her lower belly and she isn't meeting his eyes. "Sorry, I should have -"

"Hey, it's okay," he soothes, pulling the blanket back up around them. She's still really stiff in his arms, so he runs his hand smoothly up and down her back until Esther relaxes a little more into him. "I was just worried." He blinks a little. "Wait, was that bad news that you're not?" 

Esther laughs wetly and shakes her head. "No. I mean, probably not bad news. We're both busy adults and I don't know how I could take the kind of time off from the Chantry especially with all the rebuilding we're about to have to do…" She tilts her head back and runs her hand along his jaw, cupping his face and reading into his expression the way only she can. "You were really excited at the idea, huh?" 

Ricky shrugs, but the visions he saw when he and Sofie stood looking into the bathroom trash rise up again, of a tiny girl with brown skin and curly hair in Esther's arms. Family halloween costumes and Ox sleeping curled up at the end of their kid's bed for protection. "Yeah. And, well. I don't... _ have _ to work so much at Helping Hands. If that's what you're really worried about. But also if you don't want to, you know, be pregnant ever, that's okay too. " 

Esther laughs, but her eyes are soft. "Yeah, you could probably just turn up to make a calendar and help them hit their fundraising goals," she muses as she sinks back into his arms. "Would you - would you really want that? To have a kid?"

"I'd do anything with you," Ricky promises and presses a kiss to the crown of her head.

* * *

D / dream,  **dragon** , dares

The dragon egg is taking forever to hatch. The first thin fissures had appeared on its surface on Monday night and it's Thursday now. Kingston's having no problem watching quietly as the outer layer of the shell slowly starts to flake away, but Liz is getting impatient. 

The egg is swaddled up in blankets in a basket on their kitchen table with a space heater blasting next to it. Kingston is spending most of his time in there with it, making huge batches of food for when they're too busy to cook once the baby comes. Their whole place smells  _ incredible _ , like mac and cheese and roasting sweet potatoes and Victoria's pecan pie recipe. 

He talks to the egg, tells it about New York and the history of the people in the city. Kingston tells her she's welcome to come talk to the baby too - he always calls it  _ the baby _ which makes her get a little teary-eyed. She tries to, talks a little about legal cases and about the herb garden they're starting on their fire escape. It feels a little too weird to be talking to a giant iridescent rock that's slowly crumbling so she retreats to her study where she can freak out about being an expectant mom to a magical baby without Kingston fussing.

Their baby arrives as most babies are wont to do: in the middle of the night and screaming voraciously. He's a beautiful little boy, the spitting image of Kingston when he's not a small red-and-gold dragon with large fin-like crests and a mouthful of smoke. Kingston cries as he picks up their son - their  _ son _ , jeez, Liz is about ready to cry as well - who seems happy enough to fall into human form when Kingston swaddles him up in a blanket and holds him close to his chest.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on tumblr [here](https://myclericalromance.tumblr.com)


End file.
